![]() ![]() Powertrip didn’t just signify a personal reinvention – it heralded a musical one too. I say it in the song: ‘I died a thousand times and I’ll build myself again.’ It’s that reinvention thing again.” “It just seemed like I’ve lived so many lives and been reborn – old bands, shitty jobs, divorces. Rock’n’roll was a chance for me to go, ‘Maybe I can switch it up, be something else.’”ĭave himself had joined his first proper band, Ramones-style power-pop punks Shrapnel, in the late 70s, and he had turned 40 by the time he started work on Powertrip. “I was taught by the records I listened to and the stuff that I read that rock’n’roll was a place where you could reinvent yourself,” he says. But I thought, ‘I’m gonna use it, I don’t care.’”īut Powertrip had a deeper message than just ‘take this job and shove it.’ At heart, it was a song about reinvention. “The song should be called ‘I Never Want To Work Another Day In My Life’ – ‘Powertrip’ is just thrown in there. “It didn’t really mean anything, it just sounded cool,” says Dave. The phrase that gave the song its title had been rattling around his head since the previous album. Do you know how much fun it is to scream, ‘I’m never gonna work another day in my life’ really loud? It feels good!” I want to be on vacation too.’ That was totally aspirational for me. “Those words just came out - ‘I’m never gonna work another day in my life,’” says Dave. Those same vacant rubes inspired the song’s immortal lyrical hook. I’m desperate over here and you’re walking around fucking sticking coins in slot machines.’” I’m yelling at these people: ‘Who’s gonna teach you how to dance? Who’s gonna show you how to fly?’ Like, ‘There’s more to life than what you’re doing. “I’d been thinking about people I saw, enjoying themselves doing nothing. Powertrip itself came early in the process. Then I’d go back to the hotel around four o’clock in the morning and write until about eight or nine then pass out and repeat.” “I would just walk around watching people, ’cos Vegas is people-watching heaven. “I wasn’t getting high and I wasn’t gambling,” he says. ![]() For inspiration, he would sleep all day then hit Sin City at night. He set himself the task of writing 21 songs in 21 days. The label agreed and Dave decamped to Nevada, holing up in a hotel room 10 miles from Las Vegas with guitars, speakers, a drum machine and a four- track recorder. If you’re gonna do something, do it right.” “I was, like, “You know what I need? A trip to Vegas so I can write the record.’ When was I ever gonna get a chance to do anything like that again? It my chance to live out my Hunter S Thompson fantasies. Though his band were in a potentially precarious position, he was still a major label artist with major label money behind him. To put flesh on the bones of his vision, Dave decided to go method. ![]()
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